ICANN Set To Broaden World of Domain Names

hypnosec writes "ICANN, as a step towards expanding global top level domain names, has approved a new Domain Name Registrar Accreditation Agreement that is expected to bring about waves of continued improvements in the domain name ecosystem (PDF). The new agreement is a result of efforts of over a year of negotiations that took place between ICANN and Registrar Stakeholders Group. The new agreement brings quite a few improvements, including making it mandatory for registrars to appoint a point-of contact for reporting abuse, and to establish registrar responsibilities for reseller compliance, enhancement of compliance tools, audit rights, and certification requirements, among others."

Comments

why?

[lister king of smeg]

am I the only one that thinks this is useless complication that will make dns more of a pain to work with simply so icann can grab money.

Re:why?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that is the normal thought for anyone who knows what DNS is. This is a money grab and evidence of our need to always feel we have to do something to justify our-self/our-group/our-job/our-ego instead of keeping the status quo. Also called change for the sake of change.

Re:why?

[rudy_wayne]

ICANN is busy considering over 1800 requests for new gTLDs like .shop, .motocycle, .google, .youtube, and .lol.

All of which are completely useless and will only be used for phishing/scams/spams/malwares.

Re:why?

[sidthegeek]

.tv is the ccTLD for Tuvalu. But they're a small island, so they sell those domains to anyone who wants to build video-related websites.

Re:why?

[hairyfeet]

Now see those I have NO problem with, every country gets their own TLD and if they want to sell them for this or that service? NO problem with that. What I DO have a problem with is the crapflood of TLDs which is gonna be a fricking jackpot for squatters and scammers, I work for ordinary folks and its hard enough to teach them to watch what they type or click on and only stick to .com,.net, and .org. I can just imagine the "fun" I'm gonna have when all those are meaningless because you'll have everything from .fun to .smile, its gonna be hell for us guys in the trenches.

Re:why?

[SuricouRaven]

Well, they still havn't solved the homoglyph problem.

You're quite right, though. It's just a big money-grab. There isn't a shortage of domains. There's a shortage of the really good domains, but adding more isn't going to help with that because it just means every major company is going to need to buy yet more variations of their name to prevent a prankster, porn site or competitor using them.

Re:why?

[SuricouRaven]

Plus it's going to really screw with name resolution. When I type 'ommadon' into my browser, how is it supposed to know if I mean to google on the string 'ommadon'*, or visit the host names 'ommadon' on my local network**, or resolve the gTLD 'ommadon'***? Any of the three possibilities could be valid - or possibly even all three. And none of them is a consistantly correct default. Even worse, 'guessing' wrong could be a security vulnerability - by spoofing broadcast name resolution an attacker could trivially appear on a local network with a hostname of his choice, so every time someone tried to google on a common word they'd be redirected to his own server.

*Cheaply-animated villain with a habbit of laughing evily a lot.
**My NAS box.
*** I can't imagine why anyone would register this, but it could happen.

Definition

[girlintraining]

waves of continued improvements in the domain name ecosystem.

ICANN is apparently using a broader definition of "improve"... because to date, very little that they've done has been anything but a cluster fuck of greed, incompetence, and blamestorming. Basically, everything I've come to expect from the committee decision-making process, as overseen by dozens of governments. And this latest "wave" of improvement is basically standardizing that process so that it is easier for corporations and governments to rapidly screw up the internet -- "accountability" in this context is code for "faster domain seizure".

New requirements ...

[PPH]

... for "reporting abuse, registrar responsibilities for reseller compliance, enhancement of compliance tools, audit rights, certification requirements, ...".

Pile enough crap on and small enterprises and individuals won't be able to handle a domain on their own. Enter the management companies, who will extract fees for handling all of this overhead. Worse yet, it will push owners of domains who can no longer afford to maintain them to put them back on the market, where the big corporations can get their hands on them.

I have known a number of people who registered valuable domains, not as squatters but small businesses who were smart or quick enough to get there first. Some have fallen for the trap of companies that 'manage' domains in return for signing over ownership. The result was their losing the domain when their 'manager' unilaterally determined the domain had more value on the market than the present user gave it.

Someone's asleep at the wheel

[WML MUNSON]

For those that don't RTFA, there's a fairly important detail missing from the summary:

Under the new agreement it would be mandatory for registrars to confirm the phone numbers or addresses of domain name buyers within 15 days of domain registration.